This site will point you to places you've never been to before.
You'll also be introduced to films (ratings from 1- 5), festivals, music, getaways travel, restaurants and much more. Commentaries and amusing anecdotes may pop up.
I really welcome your comments at the bottom of each article.
So join me on the ride into the rugged and the luxurious.
We all need to discover open borders in the world and in ourselves.
S.N.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

A while back, you may
have seen those lovely looking people on Montreal bus panels - their faces smiling over
this message: “La langue française, c’est la langue Quebécoise” – something
like that – with a ‘vrai’ in there; or, written on French classroom walls saying, Le
francaise, c’est la meilleur langue.”

It also appears on local
French TV stations using a seductive voice-over in an haut-art ad, showing
contented, successful people in several professions and trades (note that very
few ‘Québecois’ blacks or Asians are presented). Both of these ‘enlightened’
ads are sponsored by l’Office de la langue française. I find it all deceptive.
Everyone looks so happy and carefree. The ad with its soft, diffuse lighting
looks like it was created by a cinematic art director. But what lies beneath
the glow? The Office is actually sending a succinct message, telling all
native-born Anglophones and thousands of immigrants that French is the magic
bullet. It’s clever subliminal advertising.

We all know that French is the operative language in the province. Isn’t this a
platitude, so why did ‘le Grand Frère’ spend lots of money on such an ad
campaign? You don’t see in Argentina - where there is a massive mix of
languages and cultures – an ad saying: “Espaňol, es la lengua de la Argentina;
nor in Germany, Greece, Spain, France or Turkey.’. So what’s up?

I believe any "Speak French" ad is a highly visible attempt to remind all ‘outsiders’ that the
‘acceptable’ language is French. Unfortunately, this inference contains a
subtext of exclusion: the ad devalues and even debases all other languages and
their speakers. If you don't speak it, you don't belong here.

What I find appalling is the fact that this is the same kind of insidious
knee-jerk reaction we get in racism. I say we ought never to judge a person by
the colour of his/her skin or the language he or she speaks. This is not the
way to go. It’s time we went past this. Intolerance is as easy to promote as
lighting a match. Clearly, the intrinsic message in the ad is insensitive, and
a tad incendiary, since it subliminally and subtly encourages us to think that
we ought to disdain those who don’t use French every day in their lives here.
It’s high time we begin to use our brains and a tempered heart to seize and
appreciate every individual’s uniqueness. This is what defines
humanity’s progress. Why can’t we have this message: «Le Québec, c’est la
province ou chaque culture et chaque langue sont célébrées: un québécois traverse
le monde ici; utilsant le français, ça va plus vite.» (The last part of this line is my conciliation to Bill
101).

When I was 16, I roomed with a francophone while studying Québecois French at Laval University
one summer – a great experience. The following summer, I went to Glendon College to study ‘Continental French’. I
learned French varies - not just the accent, but expressions here and overseas.
My Haitian friend Marie from Snowdon claims
that her French is the ‘real’ one; she’s a ‘vraie’ Quebecer.

I was nominated for a Mr. Christie award for my children’s book, ‘Les Cinq Sens
en Folie’. Bilingual, even degreed to teach, I taught French in Ontario. My first job
was in French here. I even taught drama and ESL at the French School,
École Mont Royale, many years ago. But an incident taught me that exclusion is
not based on language. I was invited by the Quebecois publisher to celebrate at
a party. I made a comment (in French) that this is the way it should be: Anglophones
and francophones having fun together, though I seemed to be the only anglais
there. The cute fellow I was talking to yelled at me I would never be a
Quebecer, I wasn’t wanted here. I persisted as I laid into a litany of my
‘French’ accomplishments, including my education, employment and Ottawa friends who were
francophone. But I was a tête carrée according to this fellow. He had also
written a kid’s book so I thought we had something in common – something to
share. I felt rejected and discouraged, and left the party as an outcast. Maybe
this incident was an anomaly, but this chap was refined, ‘educated’- Quebec’s pride.

Please Quebec, it’s time you started
educating your own about tolerance, since you do have a generous immigration
policy here (though the agenda smacks of ‘francisiation’: in numbers there is
strength).

Quebec is uniquely great because of its diversity.
Legislating culture and language threatens the most priceless language of all:
democracy.

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Rodeo man Iremar, co-worker Galiga, her 10-year-old daughter
Cacá and fat guy Ze travel around Brazil
living alongside their white bulls, horses and trucks. It’s a filthy life that
is hopeless and without merit. Porn and the mistreatment of animals is explicit in this raw but boring film that borders on cruelty and some perversion. Screened at Montreal's Brazilian Film Festival.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Cinemania is 22 years young!! It’s the most exciting French language
film festival in Canada,
and the largest of its kind. At this year's press conference - held at Montreal's sleek Sofitel Hotel - Maidy Teitelbaum – Cinemania’s founder
and director proudly presented an enormous program that for 11 days takes the
audience on a whirlwind adventure with films from France,
Belgium, Senegal French
Polynesia, Switzerland, Algeria
which also includes co-productions with partnering countries. More than 50
films including 40 premieres, 16 celebrities and VIP guests will expose the
creativity of the francophone film world as it unfolds its cultural and geographic
diversity.

Maidy Teitelbaum

Nicole Garcia

Nicole Garcia – one of the world’s great actors and directors with 69
films to her credit (not to mention her
television and theatre career) will grace the stage with the latest film she directed.
On November 3rd, she will be presenting her film, From the Land of the Moon – Cinemania’s opening film. Also present
will be Jacques Fieschi who co-wrote the screen play with Mlle Garcia. Based on
the novella, Mal di Pietre, by Sardinian author Milena Agus, this fabulous work
that’s set in the 1950s in the Alps is full of drama and love's torments and twists. It’s an
enthralling saga where the heroine is a brazen as she is sensual. Starring Marion Cotillard, the film will also
be screened at 1:15 on November 5th at Cinema Imperial.(See my review below).

Equally dazzling is the fact that the beautiful actor Virginie Efira will be another
festival guest. She’ll be with Cinemania from November 10th to the
13th to present her newest films: Elle, Up for Love, and In Bed with Victoria (the closing film
on November 13th). Not only we will see her live just before she
introduces these films, but she stars in them! Rich in tone, each one offers a distinctive tone for its genre: a romantic comedy, a thriller and
a light-hearted.. Judging by the many amazing
features which includes 40 North American and Quebec premieres, the 11-day outstanding
film festival offers.

Virginie Efira

Historical dramas, such as A
Woman’s Life, adapted from a Guy de Maupassant novel; art biopics – Cezanne
and I; and WW11 dramas based on true stories – Fanny’s Journey, and The
Poisoning Angel – are only part of the poignant potpourri of the delicious
films set to tease your senses, stimulate your mind and move your emotions
during these turbulent times.Remember,
though, Cinemania is exhilarating and entertaining. This festival is about
quality, brilliance and films that audaciously raise the bar on the world’s
greatest cinematically savvy festivals.

I can hardly wait!

Cinemania runs from November 3 to the 13. For
information on all films, venues, schedules and tickets, visit: www.festivalcinemania.com

Without a doubt, Marion Cotillard superbly plays a demented woman
desperately living in the country in the 1950s with her parents and younger
sister. Gabrielle is desperately searching for love, so much so, that she’s
eager to take her clothes off to achieve it in front of those who really have
no use for her. Nothing is as she would like it to be. She is clearly an
unstable woman, full of passion and self-pity. She’s heading for an unfulfilled
life, until she goes to the Alps and meets the man of her dreams.

Despite Mlle Cotillard’s extraordinary acting, she can neither save her
character nor the film. There is too much spent on Gabrielle’s suffering.
Still, the film is a marvellous showpiece for her talent.

The plot is somewhat weird, and contrived, but the acting is so good;
and the ironic twist at the end of the film makes up for the slow almost
melodramatic moments.When her mother marries her off to Jose, one of the workers, she treats him with loathing, but he is relentless in taking care of her, despite her emotional
fits and attacks of physical pain.

He puts her in a treatment centre in the Alps after she is diagnosed with the “stone disease”. The
doctor declares she will never conceive, but doctors have been known to be
wrong – just as Gabrielle finds out. She discovers how her delusions can mix
her up so much that she is blind to true love. Still, somehow, love has a way
of telling the truth to the one in need of feeling its beauty and experiencing
it, even if it takes many years to do so.

____________________________________________________

MÉDECIN DE
CAMPAGNE (Directed by Thomas Lilti) *****

This
director actively injects such authentic characters, plot and dialogue, you
simply feel part of the endearing yet dramatic scenarios that occur in the
country setting of this French community that relies on one doctor – Doctor
Jean-Pierre Werner. He visits his patients in their houses, and practices as
well in his house. But the good doctor has been diagnosed with an inoperable
brain tumor. Still, he refuses to stop or cut down on his work load.

Enter
Nathalie, a cracker-jack freshly graduated emergency doctor – who also was a
nurse. She arrives to assist him, but he puts her into near impossible situations
to test her mettle, and she passes with flying colours – especially when she darts
through the farm life that would instantly impede any visiting doctor from
reaching the door to the patients.

The film
shows the dire situation patients must endure in the impersonal French medical
system -especially for those living in villages and rural settings. Will
Natalie and the good doctor ever see eye to eye on anything?After a medical conflict, the climax finds
its own healing way, and sometimes it does involves line dancing, a meat grinder
and spots on an X-ray that can’t be ignored. Doctor Werner finds his worst patient
ever, and it’s looking at himself in the mirror.

François
Cluzet and Marianne Denicourt are marvelous together. Superb acting
with on-screen charisma and credibility. A wonderful film of humour,
human stubbornness and good old fashioned values.

Directors Laura Brownson and Beth Levison's memorable biopic is narrated
by the beat poet, Andrew Andersen (AKA Lemon). An ex-con, Lemon discovered poetry
while at Rikers. His love of poetry
touched his spiritual soul, and his messy past was about to take a different
course. The two directors brilliantly bring us into the full spectrum of his life.

Growing up in the projects in Brooklyn,
his childhood days were disastrous; they followed him right into adulthood. He
and his brother Peter became small-time drug pushers for the building they
lived in. His mother Mille was a heroin addict who died of AIDS. A lot of his
poetry is about her and their mutual love. As a kid from Puerto
Rico, he stuck out with his blond hair, and so Lemon became his
name. Peter and his wife figure in the film as major influences – not as positive
forces, but this changes at the end of the film. The story centers around Lemon's steely drive to become a very successful
poet. He begins to perform in schools. Then he raises the bar by connecting
with a small American theatre company. After some performances in this company,
he is swooped up by American Public Theatre's Under the Radar Festival. Richard
Kerner, who ran the smaller theatre where Lemon first began performing, is
dropped; the American Public Theatre wants to own all theproduction rights.Kerner is naturally disappointed,
but begrudgingly releases Lemon from their small contract. Later on in the film,
Lemon returns to Kerner asking for funds.

The relationship between Kerner and Lemon is the major focus of the film.
Kerner truly kick started Lemon’s career and got him his audience. He treats
Lemon like a brother, so when Lemon leaves him high and dry, and then goes back
to him to ask for money without eating humble pie (that’s not Lemon’s style),
Kerner said he felt like Lemon was coming back to the lover he had dumped.
Kerner gives him nothing. It was very difficult for Kerner to let his
brainchild go and receive no credit for his personal and financial investment
in Lemon. It was a bitter-sweet moment, for on the one hand, Kerner is angry,
and on the other, Lemon is happy to be moving up the ladder in the performance
world of New York City.
In defense of Lemon, the poet makes a key point: all his life he catered to others
above him, and was a “yes” boy. For the first time in his life, he is going to
pursue what he wants, even if it means breaking the bond of a deep friendship.

That scene is very telling of Lemon's great ambition and his
determination to go to higher places even if it means betraying the one who
gave him his start. There was a reason why Lemon approached Kerner. Although
his Under the Radar stint was successful, the American Public Theatre lacked
funds to support Lemon's mainstay run of County Kings
-- the name of his show. He’s told he must raise $50,000 if he wants to
continue his run. Despite rave reviews of his work from his two-week stint in
Under the Radar, he can't get the money. He ends up unemployed, taking care of
his two daughters while his highly supportive wife earns the money. One day,
Spike Lee, without whose support the award winning musical Passing Strange would have never made it to the silver screen,
calls out to him just as Lemon is leaving a restaurant. He had seen Lemon's
performance,and
offers to put up themoney
Lemon needs to continue the show indefinitely at the AmericanPublic Theatre. Lemon's poetry is
tough, defiant and extremely passionate. He is gifted and utterly disciplined. Throughout the film, Lemon presents his compelling poetry. He also offers
poignant views on poverty, power tycoons, resilience and what it takes to
overcomeseemingly insurmountable
obstacles to achieve success and endure. Interestingly, he has a problem after he
gets his main run. He hyperventilates all the time on stage. He knows he needs
his wife with him during his performances. She quits her job to be with him.
She is the sweet cherry that sweetens up Lemon's life. Nothing made him crack
during all the tough times -- just the lack of her presence. I found that
rather touching.

Monday, October 24, 2016

It’s a pretty far-fetched plot whose sketchy credibility is only
strengthened by the terrific acting and sumptuous costumes that beautifully reflect
Korea
in the 1930’s. But a dark tone infuses the film, and so it should; the
characters are live under the Japanese yoke. But this film is not about war;
rather it is about ambition, sexual lust, lies and identity theft. That’s what
it takes for the crooked phony Count Fujiwara to send his lover/ maid Sook-hee
to Lady Hideko, a reclusive and fabulously wealthy mademoiselle who in turn
must obey her uncle – a sadist who enjoys hurting young and old alike.She is supposed to marry him, but Fujiwara’s
wants her hand in marriage to get her inheritance, and this, she does not keep
from either woman.

The film works in parts including flashbacks when we see
how she is subjugated – forced by her uncle to read erotica to his friends and
pose as a sexual object. As plans are hatched, things take on twisted reversals
of fate for everyone. The film is an elaborate statement on sexual, gender and
cultural oppression.

The sexual scenes, combined with and one gruesome one of
torture were gratuitous – cruel to the eye. One wonders about the motivation
behind this confluence of distasteful human traits that played so vividly
in the director’s imagination and ended up in the characters he created in this
film.

Sado-masochism, greed, pseudo-porn and lasting lesbian love make
up the hodgepodge of this weird yet nonetheless compelling film that lasted
almost two-and-a-half hours.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Violinist, Laerte (Lázaro Ramos) freezes during a prestigious audition
for OSESEP in Brazil.
Needless to say, he did not procure the position of first violinist. He is offered a job teaching a group of uncontrollable teens how to make
music as an orchestra.

It is mayhem and a total disaster, but one kid, named
Samuel shows promise. Drugs, a riot and a motorcycle chase by police lead to a
fatal encounter. To make it all worse, there’s a violent gang that has two of
the kids in their shackles, beating them until they pay up on money they owe.
They show how dirty and dangerous life is in Brazil’s favelas. Still, Laerte is
making great progress with his little orchestra and things go well at that end.

A tragic turn of events set the plot into a downward hell, but the music of Bach and Vivaldi prove to be cathartic for the kids as they perform in the
favela for hoards of people hanging over the balconies to hear their nighttime
concert. Laerte has his own dream and it gets fulfilled. Based on a true story, the film is touching
– particularly poignant fora music
lover and that special kind of heroic teacher who never gives up on belligerent kids who come
under his/her baton. The film was screened at Cinema du Parc during Montreal's Brazilian Film Festival.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Not much to
admire about this action film, other than the teenage girl who may or not be
Reacher’s daughter.

She’s witty and unlike all other characters, seems real.
The plot has Jack back trying to uncover the government plot that involves
silencing those who have discovered an illegal clandestine smuggling operation
run by a US army dude that involves Afghanistan. What I wonder is how does one
get slammed repeatedly against a cement wall and keeping on duking it out. There
was so much violence; it overshadowed all the characters and plot. It was as if
the director knew nothing could save this lackluster film, not even the indomitable Jack
Reacher A.K.A. Tom Cruise.

To Order SN's books:

email: nansnipper@gmail.comor through Amazon (kindle)

S.N. writer, poet and musician

A bit and a lot about S.N.

An international award-winning travel journalist, S.N. has written features for over 50 publications – many translated into French, Spanish and Greek. Her children’s book Les 5 Sens en Folie was nominated for a Mr. Christie Award, and her poetry/short storycollection,Beyond the dream: Epic Solitude received praise from CBC Radioand the international film producer, A. J. Virmani.S.N. holds 4 university degrees (Deans list), and is a classical pianist and songwriter with 3Cds out. An intrepid traveler, who has done archaeology in Greece, worked as a journalist there, acted professionally in its amphitheatres, and interviewed prominent artists from the country, S.N. looks forward to sharing her reviews and adventures with readers. She writes honestly and with wit. Her recent novel, Floating on Lily Pads made headlines on radio and TV.

FLOATING ON LILY PADS

SN's new novel is sure to thrill you. You can purchase it on Kindle or leave your request in any comment box.